Along the same lines as Tamsin's letter, I recieved this the other day:
Subject: [Fwd: Bomb them with butter, bribe them
with hope]
Boojum Expeditions Khovsgol Lodge Management -UB
office wrote:
A military response, particularly an attack on
Afghanistan, is exactly what the terrorists want. It will strengthen and
swell their small but
fanatical ranks.
Instead, bomb Afghanistan with butter, with rice,bread, clothing and
medicine. It will cost less than conventional arms, poses no threat of US
casualties and just might get the populace thinking that maybe the Taliban
don't have the answers. After three years of drought and with starvation
looming, let's offer the Afghani people the vision of a new future. One
that includes full stomachs.
Bomb them with information. Video players and
cassettes of world leaders, particularly Islamic leaders, condemning
terrorism. Carpet the country with magazines and newspapers showing the
horror of terrorism committed by their "guest". Blitz them with laptop
computers and DVD players filled with a perspective that is denied them by
their government. Saturation bombing with hope will mean that some of it gets
through. Send so much that the Taliban can't collect and hide it all.
The Taliban are telling their people to prepare for
Jihad. Instead, let's give the Afghani people their first good meal in
years. Seeing your family fully fed and the prospect of stability in terms
of food and a future is a powerful deterrent to martyrdom. All we ask in
return is that they, as a people, agree to enter thecivilized world. That
includes handing over terrorists in their midst.
In responding to terrorism we need to do something
different. Something unexpected..something that addresses the root of the
problem. We need to take away the well of despair, ignorance and brutality
from which the Osama bin Laden's of the world water their gardens of terror.